Makedonas

We've failed at the OQT the last three times, maybe we should try to host this time. Also we were very good with the team we had last year, won our first 6 games at Eurobasket (beat Italy in Italy, Croatia, Czechia etc) and lost to Germany (in Germany) who had a red hot shooting day and played one of their best games in German national team history.

Can any of our Polish friends tell me what happened to Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk? He was so promising but I guess he gave up?

Yes, really a bad day for us. Not surprised about our W2X, they are a new combination and despite their U23/U19 individual successes, they are still only 20 yo and 18 yo and clearly too inexperienced for this level. M2X is also not surprising given their form this year which is a shame because they were so good last year and relatively young. I know one of them was injured since then, so hopefully by next year they can get back to their 2022 form and still qualify for Paris. The big disappointment for us was LM2X. This is a team that we thought could even win a medal so yeah, shocking. And they were less than one second away from winning their quarterfinal race but instead they finished 4th Ntouskos won his heat and quarterfinal both pretty convincingly, so I definitely expect him to get the M1X quota. Also with 11 quotas for W2-, it would be a shock if our girls don't get it at this point. Lastly we have LW2X. We really need our girls to do it so it is one less boat to worry about for next year. Plus we have a tradition lately of having teenage rowers qualify for the Olympics (19 yo Ntouskos and 19 yo Petrou in LM4- for Rio, 18 yo Asoumanaki in W2X for Rio as well, 18 yo Bourmpou and 18 yo Kyridou for W2- in Tokyo), so we need 17 yo Kontou to get the quota

Kurugliev won't be competing due to injury. Prevolaraki and Kougioumtsidis are the only Greek wrestlers with a realistic chance of getting an Olympic quota here (Pilidis is focusing on MMA).

Not a great day for us. W2- seems like they will still get the quota regardless, but now the LW2X doesn't look so sure and W2X too young and inexperienced (20 yo and 18 yo). Their U23/U19 success in recent years can only take them so far in such a competitive boat class at the senior level. That being said, I expect them to be much better next year to fight for a quota, as they'll each be one year older. The other option is to send a W4- with the Kyridou sisters, Fragkou, and Tsamopoulou which should qualify and then hope a teenage combination of Dalidou with Lioliou or Natsioula can do it in W2X but it won't be easy. At this point, only M1X and W2- seem 95% likely for us. LM2X and LW2X have been disappointing so far, and I didn't have such high expectations for M2X and W2X anyways.

Congrats to our Canadian friends here!

2023 US Open: Men's Singles: Round 2: (Q) Dominic Stricker SUI d. (7) Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE 7-5 6-7(2) 6-7(5) 7-6(6) 6-3 Men's Doubles: Round 1: Tsitsipas GRE/Tsitsipas GRE d. Reyes-Varela MEX/Vega Hernandez ESP 7-6(2) 6-4 Round 2: (2) Dodig CRO/Krajicek USA d. Tsitsipas GRE/Tsitsipas GRE 7-5 6-7(5) 6-4

Kasatkina is currently 11th in the race

Decent start for us with the three boats we had competing today all advancing to QF, though our LM2X were far from convincing finishing 4th in their heat after having won bronze at the European Championships early this year and 6th in the World Cup event they competed in

Both Greek teams lost in the playoffs

2023 US Open: Women's Singles Qualifying: Round 1: Haruka Kaji JPN d. Valentini Grammatikopoulou GRE 6-3 6-3 Round 1: Despina Papamichail GRE d. (4) Jule Niemeier GER 6-3 6-4 Round 2: (PR) Vera Zvonareva RUS d. Despina Papamichail GRE 7-5 7-5 Men's Singles: Round 1: (7) Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE d. (PR) Milos Raonic CAN 6-2 6-3 6-4 Round 2: (7) Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE vs. (Q) Dominic Stricker SUI Women's Singles: Round 1: Rebeka Masarova ESP d. (8) Maria Sakkari GRE 6-4 6-4 Men's Doubles: Round 1: Tsitsipas/Tsitsipas GRE/GRE vs. Reyes-Varela MEX/Vega Hernandez ESP

2023 U23 European Championships Silver: Sotiria Angou and Gavriela Lioliou (women's lightweight double sculls) Nikolaos Cholopoulos and Dimitrios Papazoglou (men's double sculls) Bronze: Ioanna Asvesta and Nefeli Ntara (women's double sculls) Panagiotis Makrygiannis (men's single sculls)

We won four medals with 7 rowers, 6 of whom were U19 athletes. 16 yo Makrygiannis won bronze in M1X which normally would be an amazing achievement for a 16 yo, but it's hard to judge based on how weak this year's U23 field was.

Your post literally had nothing to do with what I said, it's like you just wanted to find a way to talk about your dislike for Tsitsipas...Yes, he beat Coric (who I like) three times this year. And he seems pretty popular on social media, for example on Instagram he has more followers than Medvedev and the same amount as Zverev and they are from much bigger countries than Greece, so surely it's not only Greeks who like him. You can say his character and behavior is bad, so then I wonder what you think about Medvedev, Zverev, Rune and Kyrgios...

I try to give people the benefit of the doubt but Tsitsipas was "randomly" drawn against Milos Raonic in R1. Let's remember that at Wimbledon he was "randomly" drawn against Thiem in R1 and Murray in R2. Also in past US Opens he has faced Murray, Medvedev, and Rublev in the opening two rounds. Tiafoe at Wimbledon R1 in 2021 as well, and Musetti R1 Roland Garros last year. Really doesn't seem like a coincidence at this point...

The European U23 Championships are currently taking place, but I want to know who had the idea to do them just a week before the World Championships?! There are not many big names competing and for example there are only 4 boats in the women's pair

Lytra was so close Tokyo was the first time we did not get any RG quotas since 1984, now it looks like it will happen again but both Lytra and the group will have a chance at the continental qualifier next year

I'm not 100% sure. She wasn't with the national team from 2022, but they called her up for this tournament and she didn't play.

Εκτός τελικού και η Τζένγκο στον ακοντισμό...

We will know after Thursday who the Olympic qualifiers are for individuals or after Saturday's final?

Well we lost 0-3 but we did quite well. We lost the first set 24-26, second set wasn't so close (16-25), and then in the third set we really battled (without Anthouli for most of it) but lost 26-28 after having two set points. It was nice to see some other girls step up today and I am really optimistic about the future of this team. Let's not forget (how can we when I keep mentioning it ) that we were at this tournament without arguably our best player Vasilantonaki. Also I am proud of our team for fighting and being authentic, unlike the United Nations All-Star team of Azerbaijan which we faced yesterday, or Turkey today with the Cuban mercenary Vargas as their best player...I would rather lose this way than win with fake naturalized players, and I know I'm not the only one who thinks this. Lastly the live comments feed on European Volleyball today was absolutely disgusting, these things should be monitored, it was even worse than the FIBA ones. The amount of Turks making "swimming" jokes about how their ancestors killed Greeks in the sea 100 years ago was extremely disgusting, and quite shocking to be honest that so many people still think this way in 2023...

Magdalena Lobnig is also entered in the women's single sculls

All the entries are now listed on the World Rowing website. The Greek team is exactly as I predicted it to be.

Tough loss for us 2-3 against the United Nations All-Star team aka "Azerbaijan" We had leads (6-2, 11-10) in the 5th set but lost it 12-15 We need a miracle now to advance, it's too bad, we will be lucky to win a set against Turkey... Our girls fought hard though and we will have many chances in the future. Our oldest player is 30 yo and our best player is 19 yo, so we will be back (and hopefully with Vasilantonaki back in the team because we currently only have two "elite" players and she would be the third and make a big improvement to our squad)

We haven't announced our team yet, but based on the teams we've sent to the European Championships and World Cup III, plus the U23 athletes missing from the European U23 Championships this weekend, I think our team will be as follows: Women's Pair: Evangelia Anastasiadou / Christina Bourmpou Women's Double Sculls: Sofia Dalidou / Evangelia Fragkou Women's Lightweight Double Sculls: Zoi Fitsiou / Dimitra Kontou Men's Single Sculls: Stefanos Ntouskos Men's Double Sculls: Ioannis Kalandaridis / Athanasios Palaiopanos Men's Lightweight Double Sculls: Petros Gkaidatzis / Antonios Papakonstantinou The only new crew is W2X. Aside from them and the M2X, the other four crews have won medals this year either at the European Championships, World Cup III, or both. So one would think those crews are safe bets to qualify for Paris 2024 M2X last year made the A Final at the World Championships, then this year only competed at the World Cup III and finished 11th overall which is not great, but I think one of them had injury problems so hopefully they are back to their 2022 form and can qualify. W2X is a young team, but both girls have a lot of U23 and U19 medals (especially gold) so hopefully they can do well together. We have a lot of unused rowers and I wish we would try to enter a four-person boat, especially for the women. After the World Cup fiasco this year, I don't think the Kyridou sisters will be here unless there is a last minute surprise. It's a real shame if they can't be used, same with Tsamopoulou. I hope next year we can see some other crews try to qualify. We had 5 girls last year win medals at both the U19 World and Euros in the main events (W1X, W2-, W2X). Of those, only Dalidou is here. Gkogkou is going to be rowing at Yale University with Bourmpou, and Asvesta has not competed in any regatta this year but will be at the European U23s this weekend. Natsioula (who won three gold medals last year in U23 and U19) is nowhere to be found, and same with Argyraki. Also our two biggest talents in recent years, Asoumanaki and Christodoulidis, do not seem to be rowing anymore. They won the NCAA Championships and then stopped rowing it seems... And for the men Stergiakas came back, won the World and European U23 titles in 2021 in M2X with different partners (after not competing since 2018 when he won gold in both of those regattas as well), then disappeared again...